Help for a Newbie.

W2K+SP4, SW5 SP0.
I'm a total newbie to SW and am trying to teach myself by working
through the tutorials, but have come to a grinding halt.

All went fine until halfway through the tutorial called "Advanced Design
Techniques".

The first problem came at item 1 in the section called "Creating the
Layout Sketch" where it says "Open a sketch on the large model face, and
name it 'layout for cuts'". How do I do this? I could only name the
sketch after I had created it ,not as I created it (so I circumvented
the problem somewhat).

The problem that has stopped me completely is in the section called
"Creating the Hinge - 3Cuts". At step 3 I click "closed contour", but
when I click OK I get another box saying...

"This operation requires selecting:
for offset of model edges
-one or more connected model edges
-one model face
-one model face and an edge of the face to specify the loop
for offset of external sketch entities
-one or more connected sketch entities
-one entity on a closed contour
-one external sketch with a closed outer contour
OK"

I'm stumped. What on earth does this mean, and what do I do now? Is it
me? Have I done something wrong? If so, what? Can anyone help please?

 

WHILE THE SKETCH IS OPEN HIGHLIGHT THE SKETCH FEATURE IN THE FMT AND
HIT F2 OR SLOWLY DOUBLE CLICK IT. YOU CAN THEN RENAME IT TO LAYOUT FOR
CUTS.

I HAD THE SAME PROBLEM PICKING THE RIGHT EDGE FOR CONVERT ENTITIES. IT
IS A BIT QUIRKY.

 

I think I've tried every edge - I either get the same error message, or
another one saying the operation is invalid. What edge should I choose?
- the one shown in red in the tutorial is the one I tried first and it
doesn't work. Have I, perhaps, chosen the wrong face on which to create
the sketch?s